After a disaster the supply of contractors in an area goes down and the number of people offering to be contractors goes up. Those are not the same group. Fire recovery attracts people who take a deposit and disappear, and it attracts legitimate firms who are genuinely too busy to do your job well. Both outcomes cost you the rebuild.

The checks that prevent this take about an hour per bidder and are all free. An hour is a fraction of what you will spend arguing with a contractor you did not check, and a rounding error against the deposit you could lose.

Write your scope of work before you ask anyone for a price. Three bids on three different understandings of the job are not comparable and cannot be used to negotiate. One written scope sent to three contractors produces three numbers that mean something.

Never accept a bid from somebody who arrived at your property uninvited. California treats unlicensed contracting more seriously in areas under a declared state of emergency, and there are restrictions on soliciting disaster repair work. The specifics are enforced by the Contractors State License Board. Not yet confirmed by LAEDC. Door-knocking after a fire is the single strongest warning sign there is.